A survey published this Wednesday, January 5, 2025 reveals that François Bayrou “could not not know”, about the accusations, complaints and testimonies for cases of sexual violence in Notre-Dame de Bétharram.
François Bayrou was he aware of the pedophile scandal of Notre-Dame de Bétharram, aCatholic private establishment located in the Béarnaise campaign near Pau, a city whose current Prime Minister has been mayor since 2014? He always maintains that not. Between 1950 and 2010, several cases of physical and sexual violence as well as rapes were allegedly perpetrated on children aged 8 to 13. To date, 112 complaints have been filed against the religious institute locatedin the commune of Lestelle-Bétharram.
This Wednesday, February 5, Mediapart Publishes an investigation in which the media affirms that the former Minister of National Education – who had himself educated several of his six children in this establishment – could not not know. Recently, François Bayrou was questioned about his level of knowledge concerning the Betharram scandal. “It is true that the rumor, 25 years ago, suggested that there had been slaps in boarding school. But of sexual risk, I had never heard of,” he assured the Parisian in March 2024. A “false explanation,” said Mediapart in his investigation.
“No one has alerted me to the subject,” he said in 1966
From 1966,Notre-Dame-de-Betharram is experiencing his first judicial case. A supervisor is sentenced for hitting a student. Despite an ultra -mediated affair at the time, the current Matignon tenant indicates today that “only one” of his daughters “recalls a slap case given by a supervisor”, in the columns of the Republic of the Pyrenees, last March. “Impossible,” said the young boy’s father. “My son was in the same class as hers, Clixe Bayrou,” he recalls. “At the time, I was furious against his lack of response,” he continues for Mediapart.
“Never has anyone alerted me to this subject, at least in my memory (…) You can imagine that if someone had indicated to me facts of this order, my children would have been educated there” , he says in the point. However, at the time, one month after the filing of the complaint, François Bayrou then Minister of Education went there to support the establishment, recalls Sud-Ouest. The implicated supervisor was finally convicted, sparing the mayor of Pau wrong.
According toAlain Esquerre, the whistleblower having allowed the Betharram affair to be unveiled, it is a “taboo subject” for François Bayrou. Taboo, “because for him, it touches him deeply in his faith, his values. He is amazed, he does not believe it. He has been alerted several times, but says he has not seen … or he n ‘did not want to see.
“I have never heard of rape charges”
Bis repetita in 1998, the ex-director of Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, Father Carricart, is indicted, accused of having raped a child. A few weeks later, after being released from his detention, he suicide. “Again, if François Bayrou swears that he was unaware of everything, several witnesses of the time contradict him,” said Mediapart. The media even adds that François Bayrou’s wife, Elisabeth, “went to Father Carricart’s funeral”. A few years later, in 2009, journalist Dominique Conil revealed that “parents had written to François Bayrou, without obtaining an answer, not even this standard letter enjoining you to let justice”.
In this case, François Bayrou went to see Judge Christian Mirande in person to “speak to him all afternoon”, reveals the world. “I felt that I should not dwell on this file,” even said the magistrate in the columns of the Republic of the Pyrenees. Again, the current head of government denies: “I did not know Father Carricart, if not perhaps (…) I have never heard of rape accusations”, confides -Al in the world. However, this is not exactly the same speech that Mirande judge takes in the Mediapart investigation: “I do not understand why he denies today. We know each other, we were even neighbors (…) Our Meeting of the time, it was specifically on this file, “he says. While three other testimonies are targeting Father Carricart today, François Bayrou has not moved an iota as to his position.
Today, several sexual violence have been recognized by the Catholic Church in the premises of Betharram. One of the victims, Jean-Marie Delbos was even compensated in 2023 by the Recognition and Distribution Commission (CRR) for rapes suffered in the 1950s. “In 1957 a young priest who, at night, took advantage of being Sleeping up. These different cases.